Kink Magic *** Beyond Vanilla by Taylor Ellwood & Lupa © 2007
Megalithica Books (an imprint of Immanion Press
http://www.immanion-press.com)
ISBN 978-1-905713-11-0 229 Pages including
Appendices, Bibliography and Index Paperback $21.99 (U.S.)
I am obligated to admit that my love life is decidedly vanilla, and hence
I
have no personal familiarity with the kink scene. In a way, that makes me
an ideal individual to review this book. If the information can be
conveyed
in a clear, non-threatening manner to a complete novice, that is the mark
of
a well-written book. This is such a book.
There will be those individuals who will be put off by the mere title of
this book. Either the word "kink" or the phrase "*** magic" will convince
them that this is a ****ographic book. It most assuredly is no. It is
not
concerned with what goes where. It is concerned with how to use
non-traditional energy sources to achieve magical ends. If you want
****ography, graphic illustrations and that style of thing, fire up your
web
browser and net surf your brains out. If you want to explore the
potentials
in the use of *** for magical purposes, this is an im****tant book for you.
Like all of the works I have seen from this publisher, this is a book
aimed
at a specific audience with limited appeal to the general population. For
this reason their works often get overlooked, and that is too bad. They
produce thought-provoking, well-written books which deserve to be better
known.
If you have an interest in some of the more esoteric aspects of magick and
related topics (Og(h)am, Otherkin, etc.) you would be doing yourself a
favor
by checking out their website and sup****ting this company by purchasing
some
of their books. The quality is far superior to what I have come to expect
from small publishers; the topics are thought-provoking; and the prices
are
reasonable. If you need more incentive to purchase their work I can't
help
you, but those are more than enough for me.
A lot of time and space is dedicated to the safety aspects of both magic
and
kink - a subject which is all too often neglected in books on either
topic.
This is NOT a "101" book, in spites of its insistence on covering the
basics. This is simply a matter of making sure that everyone is on the
same
page.
Although I, personally, am not a fan of the gender neutral pronoun "hir" I
can understand its use in this case to offset the common misperceptions
about dominance/submission in a kink setting. Every time I saw it, it
reminded me that all is not necessarily as my early cultural conditioning
may have led me to expect. It kept me on my toes, and that was a good
thing.
If either of these topics (magic or kink) interests you (especially if
both
do) this book is a wonderful addition to your library. It accomplishes
what
it sets out to do, which is to show how kink can be used to enhance
magical
workings. Is it necessary to combine them? No, but for some individuals
it
can enhance their experiences.
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